1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to particulate spreading devices and, more particularly, to an electrically powered hand spreader.
2. Description of the Related Art
Home owners frequently need to dispense particulate matter, such as lawn fertilizer, weeding chemicals, grass seed, and even salt, over a given area, such as lawn, sidewalk or driveway. Conventional methods for spreading or dispensing particulate have a hopper that is manually filled particulate and allows the particulate to gravity feed onto a spinning spreader plate that cases the particulate outwardly. The spreader is usually powered by mechanical interconnection to wheels or a hand crank associated with the spreader plate so that the plate is causes to spin and the user pushes the hopper along the ground or turns the hand crank. These systems typically have poor distribution and control over dispensing, and require that the user physically drive spreading operations by moving along the ground or turning a crank. These systems also require a lot of contact between the user of the system and the particulate to be spread, which is a significant disadvantage due to the hazardous nature of many particulates.
While automatically powered spreaders avoid the need for the user to provide the distributing force, they suffer from many of the same drawbacks. For example, electrically powered spreader plates still have poor distribution and control, due in part to the lack of means for ensuring flow of particular from the container to the distributor, and also require that the user manually handle particulate. Other systems, such as those the attached to conventional leaf blowers are mechanically complicated and expensive. While these systems may be attractive to commercial customers, they are not too expensive and complicated for the average homeowner and require the use of additional equipment that is expensive and difficult to use.